The Ship's Carpenter on the Mayflower was responsible for fixing everything ship-related that 'broke or needed mending'. He was also responsible for maintaining tools and supplies, including nails, cinches, hatchets, saws, and rudder iron. It was the ship's carpenter who constructed the dismantlable shallop which the Pilgrims stored "betwixt the decks".
An ongoing project inside the main cabin and commenced in June 2012 was somewhat disruptive and in 2022 is ongoing. I designed and got made massive amounts of storage for what would eventually become a spare spare bed. The area designated The Mess came with all sorts of mismatching timber and marine ply sheets, unsuited to the needs of a constantly moving boat alternating between office, dining area, map table, work bench, rest area and (if required) a usable double bed. I've worked with ship's carpenters and found them highly skilled, meticulous, inventive, lateral thinkers who can always produce a tasty solution to any challenge. This was a challenge. The drawers were made by Clive and Ben, a father and son team, ship's carpenters who would later fabricate The Front Window
I have never seen ship's carpenter's work on a narrowboat, apart from Pentargon. The beautiful work of Abbey Molyneux is a ship's carpenter's work but Abbey works on real boats traditionally built. Most of the mucking on canal boats is achieved by copying someone else's stupidity or copying copies of copied stupidity. I was determined not to perpetuate that nonsense on my boat.
In 2012, I had a set of drawers made to my design and spec. They would be mounted on aluminium rails to provide accessible sliding storage trays. The completed units would act as a base for seating and sleeping. This work has been ongoing whenever it was possible to moor up and advance the work. Mid 2024, that project is still ongoing as the aluminium proved too light and was changed for robust steel channel in 2022. That has proven to work very well but the job awaits finishing. R&D can be a long drawn-out process at the best of times in a floating man-cave off grid.
I have never seen ship's carpenter's work on a narrowboat, apart from Pentargon. The beautiful work of Abbey Molyneux is a ship's carpenter's work but Abbey works on real boats traditionally built. Most of the mucking on canal boats is achieved by copying someone else's stupidity or copying copies of copied stupidity. I was determined not to perpetuate that nonsense on my boat.
In 2012, I had a set of drawers made to my design and spec. They would be mounted on aluminium rails to provide accessible sliding storage trays. The completed units would act as a base for seating and sleeping. This work has been ongoing whenever it was possible to moor up and advance the work. Mid 2024, that project is still ongoing as the aluminium proved too light and was changed for robust steel channel in 2022. That has proven to work very well but the job awaits finishing. R&D can be a long drawn-out process at the best of times in a floating man-cave off grid.
A shallop (f. chaloupe) is a light, open boat which would be familiar to canal boaters as a 'tender'. It can be hoisted onto the roof or davitted. When stored it must, by law, be contained within the profile of the boat and in olden days it might have been made in such a way as to be taken apart for storage. https://yorkshiredictionary.york.ac.uk/words/ defines a ship's carpenter as "an occupational term first noted in an Act of 1495" . Back then, everyone knew what a carpenter was and did. Fixing anything ship-related that broke and needed mending was a sufficient brief in 1600 but with the advent of steam, carpenters became stokers of furnaces and when diesel was introduced stokers became diesel mechanics. Some ships carpenters went on to become shipwrights. I served as a volunteer stoker in the MVS london Unit 10807.
